OUR BABIES

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 91, 29 November 1928, Page 2

OUR BABIES

BY HYGEIA. Published under the auspice:* cf the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Sooiety). "It is. wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom."

SOJffli POINTS ABOUT CHILDBED'S CLOTHING. PROTECTION. Tike primary object of clothing is to protect the body, therefore the fi/st consideration is to adjust and regulate the number and weight 1 of clothes according to changes of weather and season. For instance, in wet and wintry weather, when the feet and trunk most need prelection, the main essential is that the clothing shall be warm and the footwear serviceable and waterproof. In sunny summer weather the head and back of the neck and the eyes are the most vulnerable spots, and a shady hat is really the most important article of el'othing.

SUNSHINE

In warm weather the child's body needs very little clothing; he would really be be3t with none, other than the sunlight itself. Exposure, not protection, is required. Sunshine is one of the child's natural birthrights—sunshine, not just on face and arms and legs, though that is better than nothing,, but sunshine all over him. . Direct exposure of the naked body to the sun's rays cures disease and makes the weakly strong. How greatly important, therefore, that well children should benefit generally by sunlight. It is the universal life and health giver, the great natural tonic and stimulant, the best destroyer of germs. In a marvellous and exquisite manner it affects every organ and tissue in the body, assisting all the cells to do their special work as it should be done. Bronzing of the skin is the outward and visible signs of this inward, health-giving power ,and every child should be brown as a berry by the time summer is well advanced. Of course, discretion must be used, and, as we said before, burns should never be allowed to occur. However, with regard to children's Qlothes, it is safe to say that the lightest and loosest of garments should be worn in, summer weather, and that it is very beneficial to discard even these for some specified time daily during really warm, calm, sunny spells, letting the children play in the sun as they would on the beach. One dees not need to wait for a seaside holiday to give children, the benefits of sunlight' and moving air on their bcdieK. These things, happily, may be had in any back garden, even though times be hard and holidays remote, i

OVERCLOTHING. Generally speaking, we rather tend 'to cverclothe children, underestimating the capacity of their natural heat-regulating mechanism. This capacity is very great if properly trained by graduated exposure to air, sun, and cold water. As a matter of fact, the child who has been accustomed to cool baths or showers, to living and sleeping in pure, cdol air, and who has also been sensibly clad, is pretty well immune to colds and 'other minor ailments, and he simply does not notico ordinary changes in external temperature. lt| lis the coddled chilvi who "feels the cold." IP CHILDREN ARE CHILLY. If children feel the cold it! generally means that they need more exercise and mere sensory stimulation—that is, graduated cool to cold baths, followed by brisk friction, graduated exposure to direct sunlight, etc. By these means the internal "machinery" is speeded up and more lieat is produced and maintained. Extra clothing may be necessary as a temporary measure—no child should be ccld lut extra clothes will not 1 compensate for poor vitality. INSUFFICIENT CLOTHING. Occasionally parents are over-zeal-ous in their efforts to make children hardy, erring on the side of underclothing fthemj. This lis a great mistake, and tends to retard growth. Apart from this, however, with the erratic tendencies of our cilmate and the prevalence of cold winds, one needs to be on one's guard against

sudden changes hi the weather. There is also the danger that 1 warmth and suitability may he sacrificed for the sake of mere prettiness. There is simply no justification for the way one sometimes sees little tot's dressed on days which are anything hut warm—short socks and the shortest of short frocks, with underclothes to mat'ch, which constitute little more than frills. How is it that mothers can clothe their children thus and yet consider fur coats no more than adequate for themselves?

THE HAPPY MEAN. The ideal is, of course, the happy medium between coddling and undue exposure, between mere utility and sheer prettiness without it. In this, as in everything to do with children, it is largely a matter of simple common sense. The main points tO' emphasise are something like this:— (1) That all garments should be light and loose enough to allow free movement and full chest expansion. (2) That the garment! next the skin should be nonirritating. (3) That there should be one complete garment of loosely woven or j knitted wool, except in hot weather. ! ("Shrunk-up" flannel is neither warm nor healthy.) (4) That there should be no constricting bands of elastic or any other material, clothing being suspended from the shoulders by means of a bodice. (5) That shoes should conform to the natural shape of the foot 1 . (6) That clothing in general should b e regulated according to the wea'ther, with due provision for warmth in winter and the least possible obstruction to sunlight in summer.

In a forthcoming article we will go more fully Into the question °f exposure to sunlight.